Pak troops to be sent to S Arabia
ISLAMABAD : Pakistan will deploy troops in Saudi Arabia under an existing security pact even though the Parliament had voted in 2015 not to send soldiers to the kingdom for fears that they would become involved in the Yemen conflict.
In an apparent reversal of that decision after a visit to Saudi Arabia by Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa, the army announced that troops will be sent to Saudi Arabia but they would remain within the kingdom. “In continuation of ongoing Pak-KSA bilateral security cooperation, a Pakistan Army contingent is being sent to KSA on training and advice mission,” the military’s media arm announced on Thursday after a meeting between Bajwa and Saudi ambassador Nawaf Saeed Al-Maliki at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi. The meeting had focused on the “regional security situation”.
Earlier this month, Bajwa quietly visited Saudi Arabia, where he stayed for nearly three days and his only known meetings were with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and ground forces commander Lt Gen Prince Fahd bin Turki bin Abdulaziz. This was his second visit to the kingdom in two months.
Last year, Pakistan sent former army chief Raheel Sharif to lead the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition formed by Saudi Arabia. Thereafter, it had been speculated that the Pakistani deployment would take place even though it did not happen as quickly as the Saudis wanted. The military’s media arm insisted that the new deployment and nearly 1,000 Pakistani troops already stationed in Saudi Arabia would not be “employed outside KSA”. There was no word on the size of the new deployment.
Chief military spokesman Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor said the deployment would be smaller than a division, and he would give details at a news conference.
Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani summoned defence minister to appear before the upper house to explain the move.